In the summer of 2013, Ted Cruz embarked on a nationwide tour sponsored by The Heritage Foundation to promote the congressional effort to defend the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, arguing that a shutdown of the government would not be a disaster for America or the Republican PartyOn. September 24, 2013, Cruz began a speech on the floor of the Senate regarding the Affordable Care Act relative to a continuing resolution designed to fund the government and avert a government shutdown.

Cruz promised to keep speaking until he was "no longer able to stand.The fourth-longest speech in United States Senate history, Cruz yielded the floor at noon the following day for the start of the proceeding legislative session after twenty-one hours nineteen minutes.

Cruz learned about free-market economic philosophers such as Milton Friedman, Friedrich Hayek, Frédéric Bastiat and Ludwig von Mises. Just like Cruz, Ms. Rand was one of the most extreme public intellectuals of the twentieth century. As her central creed, she rejected the idea that people in a community should approach each other with charity, compassion, and altruism. Cruz is headed for same demise! Ted Rudow III, MA